Transformation of operational concept
Since the end of the 20th century, with the great changes in the operational environment and objectives of the US Navy, the US Navy has gradually realized that "today's battlefield is offshore, at the land-sea junction of five continents". To this end, the US Navy has constantly adjusted its military strategy and put forward strategic concepts such as "from sea to land" and "frontier existence". In recent years, the US Navy has put forward the concepts of "sea strike, sea shield and sea base", which indicates that "offshore strategy" has officially replaced "ocean strategy".
In order to adapt to this important change in military strategy, the US Navy submitted the document "Force Structure Development Plan for the Next 30 Years" to Congress in late March 2005. According to this plan, which contains two different schemes, the US Navy will further reduce the size of large warships by 2035, and shift the focus of ship development to small warships represented by littoral combat ships. The US Navy's "slimming" plan is a substantial action to implement the Pentagon's new national defense strategy and national military strategy, which highlights the major change of the US Navy's operational concept from "ocean-going" during the Cold War to "offshore" during the anti-terrorism period.
Strategic transformation has given birth to
From World War II to the end of the Cold War, the US Navy has always been an ocean-going attack navy, fighting on the other side of the ocean far from home, aiming at deploying large warships in the global ocean to have control over the ocean. However, with the end of the Cold War and the rapid disintegration of the Soviet Union, most of the threats faced by the US Navy came from offshore areas, and the combat areas were mainly concentrated in offshore areas of many countries.
Since the Gulf War in the 1990s, the US fleet began to conduct military operations in enemy coastal waters. All the actions are carried out in the offshore and coastal areas, and the threat is increasing. In addition to the harsh water environment, it is mainly hostile forces and a large number of weapons. In the past 30 years, five US Navy ships have been damaged, all of which occurred in offshore waters:
To this end, in future operations, the US military needs to carry out security intervention in coastal areas. The entry of littoral combat ships can not only ensure the safe intervention of the US Navy in littoral areas, but also ensure that other combat ships are engaged in their main combat missions. In the concept of the US Navy, littoral combat ships must have ocean-going navigation capabilities and be able to reach places in the world that need to be deployed over a long distance. In areas not exceeding several hundred nautical miles offshore anywhere in the world, the Joint Task Force provides rapid mobility, high precision and powerful firepower to support military operations. Littoral Combat Ships will play a major role in the US Navy's "Development Plan for the Next 30 Years". In order to meet the needs of the global maritime strategy in the future, the US Navy plans to purchase at least 560 littoral combat ships by 2035, with a total value exceeding 654.38+0.2 billion US dollars.
Excellent technical performance
The fast maneuvering Littoral Combat Ship Freedom has a highly automated design, the crew establishment is controlled within 50, and the hull tonnage is 2,840 tons. The power system is powered by two Rolls-Royce MT-30 steam turbines, with a maximum speed of 60 knots, which can be accelerated from 0 knots to 45 knots in two minutes, and the cruising speed can reach 30 knots. It can stop immediately at a speed of 30 knots in the distance between two ships, suddenly turn at a speed of 30 knots in the distance between Mifune, and make a 360-degree turn within the distance of seven captains when sailing at full speed. The water depth is only 3.65 meters.
In addition, the carrying capacity of the ship is 50% higher than that required by the US Navy, and its tail landing platform can also provide operations for helicopters and drones, which is called a high-speed "sea truck". The ship's hull adopts modular structure and advanced hull materials, with a voyage of over 6,900 kilometers.
New concept technology On the ship type, the hull and superstructure are made of high-grade aluminum alloy, but the main structure is made of steel and some components are made of composite materials. The ship inclines inward to reduce radar reflection signal, and adopts fully enclosed superstructure and communication/sensor mast to improve survivability. It has better low-speed navigation performance in bad sea conditions, which is conducive to the safe take-off and landing of helicopters/drones. The ship is also equipped with launch and recovery facilities for high-speed interceptor boats to support special operations. The lower part of the helideck is also equipped with a folding springboard, which can be used for ro-ro transportation of light armored vehicles, artillery and other equipment.
Powerful combat system In order to meet the fire demand of littoral combat ships, the U.S. Navy will take the rail gun that will be put into actual combat as the core of the overall combat system. In addition, the US Navy also chose Donna naval gun fire control system produced by Hisar Shipyard and 57mm 1 10 stealth naval gun system produced by United Defense Company of the United States, which can launch precise and intelligent ammunition. The US Navy also plans to assemble a "future combat systems" with an indirect system. The launch system can carry 15 vertical precision attack missiles, and can attack stationary and moving targets within 40 kilometers. The Navy is stepping up the development of Kingfisher II armed UAV, which will be equipped with sensors for monitoring and reconnaissance, active sonar, two Mk54 torpedoes or four Helfa missiles, and can be equipped with a 7.62mm machine gun to protect littoral combat ships from small speedboats and submarines.
Carrying four major missions
According to the design requirements put forward by the US Navy, Littoral Combat Ship is a fast, mobile and shallow-draft surface ship, which is mainly used in the global coastal waters. Its hull structure adopts an open structure that can be reassembled, which can be assembled and matched with different weapon module systems according to the needs of the mission to realize "plug and play". This "configurable mission module" improves its technical and tactical performance in anti-submarine, anti-mine and anti-surface operations, and responds to various threats. It mainly undertakes four major tasks: anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, mine warfare and assistance in special operations.
Anti-submarine warfare module is mainly to cut off the submarine's approach. Its configuration includes an MH-60R anti-submarine helicopter equipped with sonar, sonar buoy and torpedo, an anti-submarine drone equipped with improved torpedo system and echo ranging system, an RQ-8 "fire scout" drone equipped with sensors and launching weapons, and a vertical take-off and landing drone equipped with radar periscope detection system for detecting submarine periscope.
Anti-surface combat module can attack and avoid surface ships, especially high-speed dense boats. Its configuration includes a MH-60R helicopter equipped with photoelectric/infrared sensors, Hellfire missiles, machine guns and rockets. The vertical take-off and landing drones and unmanned surface vehicles carried on the ship will also be equipped with photoelectric/infrared sensors and weapons. The railgun is the core project of the "Important Ultra-long-range Artillery Science and Technology Project" of the US military, which will provide the main firepower for the US littoral combat ships.
The mine warfare module can avoid mines and calmly carry out anti-mine operations. Its configuration includes a Black Hawk helicopter, unmanned surface craft (USV), WLD- 1 long-range mine hunting system (RMS), theater reserve automatic underwater vehicle (BPAUV) and REMUS unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV). The littoral combat ship of mine warfare will also be equipped with VTUAV to support the explosion disposal team of anti-mine.
The littoral combat ship with asymmetric combat capability has strong stealth capability, is equipped with advanced sensor system and electronic equipment, can sail in offshore shoals, has agile and flexible maneuverability, can secretly approach the enemy coastline, and assist the "SEAL" special forces to land or other land and sea equipment commandos to perform secret tasks. In addition, littoral combat ships can also be widely used in non-military fields to combat smuggling, drug control and other tasks.
Pioneer of future naval warfare
The US Navy's vigorous development of high-speed "littoral combat ships" will be an important part of the networking and globalization of US military forces. That is, the unprecedented integration of ocean, land, sky, space and computer network space. "Littoral Combat Ship" is an important symbol of the US Navy's military strategy from the ocean to the offshore, an important maritime force aimed at dominating the world's offshore, and a revolutionary new generation of naval vessels.
At present, all countries in the world are actively developing the next generation of marine vessels. Littoral combat ships being developed by some countries will make use of a new generation of hull lines, so that Littoral combat ships can effectively defend and fight in coastal areas, including dealing with many threats such as mines, fast cluster boats and submarines. Relevant experts believe that with the continuous progress of offshore warship technology, littoral combat ships will make great achievements in the military field.
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According to the report of Defense News (2006 1 9), Liberty, the first coastal warship (LCS) built by Lockheed Martin for the US Navy, will be launched in the summer of 2006 as planned and delivered in February 2007. Its construction cost will be controlled within the original planned maximum cost of $220 million.